L.A. Reid Happy To Leave X Factor As 'A Winner'

December 21, 2012 02:25 PM EDT

L.A. Reid recently announced he will not be returning as a judge on Simon Cowell’s “The X Factor,” but did the music mogul reconsider his decision after Tate Stevens (a member of L.A.’s team) won on Thursday?

“No [I’m not coming back]. What other way to leave, than to leave a winner, you know?” he told Access Hollywood following Thursday’s finale. “You always have to know when to bow out. You bow out while you are on top.”

While he’s sticking to his decision to exit the reality competition series, L.A. savored Tate’s victory and made sure to let the country singer know he was proud of Tate’s performance on the show.

“I just said [to him] there’s no one who deserved it more and it couldn’t happen to a better person and I thought he represented himself well, represented his family well,” L.A. told Access. “He represents ‘The X-Factor’ well… I’m just very happy for him.”

“I hope whoever my successor is really loves music, really loves talent, and really gets into it,” he said. “And really sort of makes his judgments based on musical emotion, instead of from an intellectual place of trying to find words.”